Ashikaga Tadayoshi

Ashikaga Tadayoshi(足利 直義?, 1306 - March 13, 1352, Kamakura, Japan)[1] was a general of the Northern and Southern Courts period (1337–92) of Japanese history and a close associate of his elder brother Takauji, the first Muromachishogun. Son of Ashikaga Sadauji and of a daughter of Uesugi Yorishige, the same mother as Takauji, he was a pivotal figure of the chaotic transition period between the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates.[2] Tadayoshi is today considered a military and administrative genius and the true architect of many of his elder brother's successes.[3] In contemporary chronicles he is rarely called with his name, but is instead called either gosho(御所,shogun?) or Daikyū-ji-dono (大休寺殿?) from the name of his family temple.[4][5] His posthumous name was Kozan Keigen (古山慧源?).[5]

Like his brother, Tadayoshi resolutely abandoned the Kamakura shogunate to ally himself with Emperor Go-Daigo during the Kemmu Restoration of 1333. When Go-Daigo had ascended to the throne in 1318, he had immediately manifested his intention to rule without interference from the military in Kamakura.[6] The samurai class as a whole however was not ready to give away power, so the alliance between him and the Ashikaga was bound to be only temporary.

Go-Daigo wanted to re-establish his rule in Kamakura and the east of the country without sending there a shogun, as this was seen, just a year from the fall of its shogunate, as still too dangerous.[6] As a compromise, he sent his six-year-old son Prince Norinaga to Mutsu province (in today's Aomori region) and nominated him Governor-General of the Mutsu and Dewa provinces.[6] In an obvious reply to this move, Tadayoshi, without an order from the Emperor escorted another of his sons, eleven-year-old Prince Nariyoshi (a.k.a. Narinaga) to Kamakura, where he installed him as Governor of the Kōzuke province with himself as a deputy and de facto ruler.[6][7] The appointment of a warrior to such an important post was intended to show the Emperor that the samurai class was not ready for a purely civilian rule.[6] Since he ruled without interference from Kyoto and the area in itself was in effect a miniature shogunate, this event can be considered the beginning of the Ashikaga shogunate.[2]

In 1335, during the Nakasendai Rebellion led by Hōjō Tokiyuki Tadayoshi, being unable to defend the city, had to leave Kamakura in a rush. Not being in the position to take along another son of Go-Daigo's, Prince Morinaga, whom he had kept as a hostage for several months, rather than letting him go he decided to have him beheaded. Turning against Go-Daigo, Tadayoshi and Takauji set up a rival emperor in 1336 and founded the Muromachi shogunate in 1338. Dividing power between them, Takauji took charge of military affairs and Tadayoshi of judicial and administrative matters.

Both Tadayoshi and Takauji were disciples of famous Zen master, intellectual and garden designer Musō Soseki, under which guidance the first would later become a Buddhist monk.[2] It was partly because of Soseki's influence that the pre-existing Five Mountain System network of Zen temples was expanded and strengthened, first with the establishment of the Jissetsu, and later with that of the Ankoku-ji temple sub-networks. The creation of both systems is generally attributed wholly to Tadayoshi.[2] It was also Soseki which famously wrote about the two brothers, describing Takauji as more apt to military pursuits, and Tadayoshi to government.

Takauji was the formally appointed shogun but, having proved incapable of ruling the country, for more than ten years Tadayoshi had governed in his stead.[3] The relationship between the two brothers was however destined to be destroyed by an extremely divisive incident called the Kannō disturbance, an event which takes its name from the Kannō era (1350–1351) during which it took place and which had very serious consequences for the entire country. Trouble between the two started when Takauji made Kō no Moronao his shitsuji, or deputy. According to the Taiheiki, Tadayoshi didn't like Moronao and, every other effort to get rid of him having failed, tried to have him assassinated. According to the same source, his plot was discovered and he was therefore removed from the government. In any event, Tadayoshi in 1350 was forced by Moronao to leave the government, shave his head and become a Buddhist monk under the name Keishin.[8] In 1351 he rebelled and joined his brother's enemies, the supporters of the Southern court, whose Emperor Go-Murakami appointed him general of all his troops. In 1351 he defeated Takauji, occupied Kyoto, and entered Kamakura. During the same year his forces killed the Kō brothers at Mikage (Settsu province). The following year his fortunes turned and he was defeated by Takauji at Sattayama.[8] A reconciliation between the brothers proved to be brief. Tadayoshi fled to Kamakura, but Takauji pursued him there with an army. In March 1352, shortly after an ostensible second reconciliation, Tadayoshi died suddenly, according to the Taiheiki by poisoning. He was buried at Kumano Daikyū-ji (熊野大休寺?), a Buddhist temple which no longer exists, but whose ruins are now near Jōmyō-ji in Kamakura.[9] The temple was founded on the grounds of Tadayoshi's former Kamakura residence, according to Jōmyō-ji's own records by Tadayoshi himself.[5] According to the Kuge Nikkushū(空華日工集?), the diary of priest Gidō Shūshin, in 1372 on the day of Tadayoshi's death Kamakura's KubōAshikaga Ujimitsu visited Daikyū-ji.[5] The date of disappearance of the temple is unknown.[5]